US Census · County Business Patterns 2017–2023

The counties moving against the country

Across 9,085 county-and-category pairs with a comparable series, 961 moved the opposite way to the national count between 2017 and 2023. Most places track the country. These didn't.

How this is ranked: by the number of businesses, not the percentage. Percent would put a county that went from 13 cleaning firms to 4 at the top and call it “-69%” — but in a county that small, four businesses is noise, not a trend. Counting businesses surfaces the places where the movement is large enough to be real.

Fell locally while the country grew

The national count for each of these categories rose over the same years. These counties went the other way.

What this doesn't tell you: Census counts how many exist each year, not how many opened or closed. A drop of 56 could be 56 closures — or 64 closures and 8 openings. It also can't see solo operators without employees, in any year. A county moving against the country is a question worth asking locally, not an answer.

Source: US Census County Business Patterns 2017–2023 ↗

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